Suicide Prevention

This is a true story:

A Priest that was a very good friend of mine with about 200 IQ (so a genius) both intuitively and intellectually was asked to counsel a young man of about 21 and his girlfriend. They were both incredibly attractive people and intelligent and she didn't want her boyfriend to kill himself. The priest tried everything he could think of to convince the young man to want to stay alive and not to kill himself. And then, because this priest was a genius in all ways he had an insight and said to the young man, "You do know that literally everyone is crazy don't you?" The young man was shocked by this statement, so the priest proceeded (I'm assuming the rest of the conversation from here). "Since everyone is a little crazy there are no completely sane people except maybe for Jesus. And because of that it is important to know that how could anyone be completely sane while facing the fact that no one gets out of here alive?"

As all this information slammed into the young man, something gave way and he began to cry and to see the error in his thinking. He didn't know that literally everyone is suffering in the same way. Most people haven't studied Buddhism so they would not have focused on the fact of the universal suffering of mankind. But the priest had because he had studied all religions and spoke and read 20 languages fluently and was also a lawyer who once was District Attorney for Santa Cruz County in California.

Most people in the end who are suicidal don't stop being suicidal because their own suffering changes. They end their quest for death because they want to help the people they love suffer less. Once this boy (young man) realized he wasn't just suffering alone he could stay alive and marry his girlfriend and live a good life.

Many people think that rich, beautiful people have everything and never suffer. That is simply not true. In some ways many beautiful people suffer more than the average looking people who are poor. Because the poor can always dream of being rich. But the rich and beautiful, what can they dream of?
In the end, "Be careful what you wish for because you may get it!"

Sometimes preventing your own suicide is as simple as choosing to get up and enjoy the sun and the beach or mountains or desert one more day until you get some kind of idea what to do next with your life. Enjoy your life enough to want to stay alive! Be kind to yourself so you can help yourself and all the others who need you!